Tom O'Hare Wants Us All To Collaborate and Get Along

Many have expressed frustrations with the inability of our local governments to identify, prioritize, and implement the real infrastructure needed to accommodate a Meijer store. The needed infrastructure is municipal water and sewer that larger developments demand. Infrastructure is not streetscapes and definitely not pedestrian bridges. More than twenty years after Walmart and the leaders of Inverness Township still do not understand the needs of big box stores; acres of cheap land in the right location with public utilities.

This frustration has brought well-intentioned people to the op-ed page voicing opinions for or against Inverness, the City, 425 agreements, and Utility Service Agreements. Special interest groups have spent thousands on full-page ads pushing one option over another. One of the most confused op-ed pieces written by Tom O'Hare and published in the June 23, 2017 Cheboygan Tribune was the same tired rhetoric that has created the Cheboygan we have today. This pundit stated collaboration of government and quasi-government entities, mixed in with a Port of Cheboygan will drive economic development. He seems ignorant of the style of collaboration practiced by Inverness and the City of Cheboygan. The Urban Dictionary best defines it as, “An unnatural act practiced by non-consenting adults”. A 20-year 425 Agreement between the City and Inverness Township serving Walmart and the Huron Estates mobile home park expired in 2012.  Twenty years looking at an approaching 425 expiration date and the two parties required another almost ‘yearlong extension to reach a compromised agreement.

I do not recall Tom O'Hare ever attending a Cheboygan County meeting. He referred to our Board of Commissioners as a County Commission and the Cheboygan County Economic Development Corporation (EDC), a twice-failed body of appointees, as another “Commission”.  This expert encourages the County’s EDC to engage the Northern Lakes Economic Alliance (NLEA) to assess what has occurred in this County the past several decades, in contrast to other counties throughout Northern Michigan. He says, “recent developments with the Port Project provide a great opportunity for this County. The EDC should engage the Brownfield Authority of the County, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and the Northeast Michigan Council of Governments to implement an aggressive outreach program to get companies to establish businesses in the County, knowing they can ship their product from the County’s new Port almost anywhere in the world.” Where was this pundit back in 2007?

From the Cheboygan City Review, Fall of 2007, here is the plan....”The issue of marketing and economic development has been addressed by activities of the City Manager and the Mayor participating on the Board of Directors of the Economic Development Corporation of the County of Cheboygan. “The EDC reviewed methods of economic development and ultimately recommended that Cheboygan County join the Northern Lakes Economic Alliance (NLEA) which formerly was a professional economic development group that acted on behalf of Emmet, Charlevoix and Antrim Counties. As stated, the Cheboygan County Board of Commissioners has approved membership in the NLEA by an annual appropriation and the City and the County will be the beneficiary of this professional economic development organization. The City of Cheboygan also provides funding toward the NLEA.” 

Almost 10 years ago, the City’s Strategic Plan was amended and goals were prioritized as follows: 1- the Redevelopment of Downtown Cheboygan (Redevelopment of Former F.W. Woolworth Building & Site); 2-Continue and Refine the Capital Improvement Planning Process and the Implementation of a Walkable Community and Sidewalk Repair/Replacement Plan; 3- Establish a Centralized Cultural Arts and Education Center; 4-Improve the Quality of Water Delivered to City Water Customers; 5-Create a City Park & Recreation System that Meets the Needs of the Community; 6-Remove Conditions of Junk and Blight from the City; 7-Develop Effective Marketing Plan to Promote the City of Cheboygan as Place to visit, as a Place to Raise a Family and as a Place to do Business; 8-Continue and Enhance Intergovernmental Communication; and 9-Refine Land Use Plan; and 10–Develop & Implement a Staffing Plan, which will Effectively Accomplish the Mission of the City of Cheboygan.

The 10 listed priorities in that decade old Strategic Plan consisted of feel good buzzwords. Tom O'Hare with a resume of 28 years in the corporate business arena advocates doing it all over again, collaboration with all these same entities. He wants to do the same thing done 10 years ago and expects a different result. That is Einstein’s theory of insanity.  

Steve Schnell-A Community Development Oxymoron

We all click through an endless stream of “end user agreements” or licensing agreements to download or use a favorite app or access some needed software or website. Some we must agree to whether we agree fully or not. An unstated and randomly enforced one victimizes us in Cheboygan County.

You agree that by residing in, building, or owning property in Cheboygan County you are agreeing to a legally binding contract with the Cheboygan County Community Development Department that we may amend by changing Ordinance #200 as often as several times a month.  If you do not agree to this “User Agreement”, do not move to, invest in Cheboygan County, or otherwise use any of our services. By residing in, building, or owning property in Cheboygan County you, identified as the end user or a taxpaying idiot, may be subject to faulty or incorrect interpretations by staff of a poorly written Planning and Zoning Ordinance amended 139 times to date. You also agree that your property may be rezoned, redefined, restricted, devalued, made obsolete, or otherwise changed regardless of the promised protections or uses allowed at the time of purchase or construction.  

The full Board of Cheboygan County Commissioners passed Amendments #138 and #139 this week. Amendment #138 redefined “dwelling” and “family”.  Dwelling moved farther from a literal definition and family became “A group of individuals, whether related or unrelated, who are occupying a dwelling.” It would seem that might also define a squatters’ house, a drug house or a whorehouse. We may have some new uses for dwellings now allowed by law in Cheboygan County. Cheboygan County has more than 25% of dwellings occupied by singles, often seniors.  The new definition of dwelling ignores that fact saying “a group of individuals, related or not”, to make it a home.

All of this nonsense further muddles the failed planning Ordinance #200 with ambiguities and contradictions drafted by our non-resident Community Development Director Steve Schnell. Mr Schnell has spent more than half his career in community planning, more than 10 years, commuting from Charlevoix County where there is no Community Development Department. That is ten years constantly changing the playing field here in Cheboygan while he refers investors and business entrepreneurs to seek information from the Northern Lakes Economic Alliance in Boyne City.

Mr Schnell failed in his attempt to outlaw short-term or vacation rentals. He ignored the needs of Cheboygan County. Some might see it as a practice that allows some to pay their taxes on lakeshore properties. Mr Schnell saw it as opportunists making “large sums” of money. His first clandestine attempts to stop the practice used a variety of differently worded enforcement letters sent to owners identified from websites like VRBO.com.

On October 5, 2016, Mr Schnell emailed Cheboygan County Legal Counsel. “Peter, We have recently begun to receive more and more complaints about neighbors renting their homes thru vrbo.com on a very transient basis. This is going to be a big effort to do enforcement on this. After reviewing the vrbo site it appears that we could have many (50+) properties which are not in compliance with the zoning ordinance due to their renting of their homes on a transient basis. The challenge I see for us is that we don’t define transient. ….Currently, when I get a complaint, I’m reviewing the property for any previous permission to rent on a transient basis and to see if they are renting by the night or by the week. Anything less than renting by the month I’m enforcing as a violation of the ordinance.. ( Insert previous Dwelling-Family definition)….. I’d like your opinion on how solid this is legally if challenged. So far I’ve enforced this on 3 parcels and 2 of them went smoothly and the third was very polite but surprised and not happy about it. I can see more resistance so I’d like to be sure of where we stand….”. The legal counsel reply was verbal and off record.

Mr Schnell stirred up a hornet’s nest and got a boardroom full of protestors who had offered vacations rentals, some for decades, with few or no problems. The problem was Mr Schnell.  

He told legal counsel in writing: “Peter, We have recently begun to receive more and more complaints…” 

Steve Schnell-Community Development Director Oxymoron 

A FOIA to Mr Schnell sought those “more and more” complaints. Within the “enforcement” records provided by Mr Schnell, there was no record of any complainant’s name or any formal documented written complaint. Can Cheboygan County afford this form of Community Development? 

Cheboygan County Clever-How's That Working For You?

I remember a conversation from the movie Fight Club when Brad Pitt says to Edward Norton, “Oh, I get it. It’s very clever” Norton’s character replies “Thank you”. Pitt then asks, “How’s that working out for you? Norton asks “What?” Pitt replies, “Being clever.” Norton says, “Great “and Pitt shrugs, “Keep it up then.”

If you are clever, and it is working for you, keep it up. The failure comes when any of us individually, as a group, community, or as a society think we are clever and we are not. A few weeks ago, everyone who reads Speaking Freely got advance notice that our Board of County Commissioners planned to spend at least $400,000 of our tax dollars to match a $400,000 DNR Waterways Grant to replace aged fuel tanks at the Cheboygan County Marina. That expenditure will be the first of $3.5 million dollars of neglected maintenance indentified over 8 years ago. The marina cannot support itself without using your tax dollars and the $3.5 million of neglect has assuredly grown larger.

Did you not know you are partial owner of a marina? It is your only county owned and developed recreational area. It is your Cheboygan County Park. It is open for all of to use and can accommodate your 50-foot yacht.  You say you do not have a yacht. Nah.., I can’t believe that. You and every other Cheboygan County taxpayer must have a nice boat because the Commissioners voted unanimously to start down the road spending millions of dollars more on the marina. Commissioners Brown and Sangster said they had heard many comments supporting the taxpayer-funded marina despite only seven county residents using it seasonally last year. There was only one protester as these clever County Commissioners started a new round of Waterways Grants that will saddle your children, and grandchildren, with another 20-year commitment for a park they will never use unless they inherit your yacht. The few raves for the marina found on-line described the cheapest marine fuel on the Straits. One Captain said the savings on just the fuel compared to Mackinaw paid for the entire stay.

Commissioner Brown commented that the Cheboygan County Marina is an essential part of the local transportation infrastructure, the same as roads or the airport. Sorry Mr Brown, a yacht harbor is a recreational facility that serves a very small demographic. The need for a safe harbor refuge on the Straits with more than a half-dozen similar sheltered dockages for recreational boaters is a foolish argument. When several tugs sought safe refuge and sank more than six years ago, Duncan Bay was the harbor of choice. The 270 residents of Beaugrand Township and their inability to fund needed road repairs is a real infrastructure problem. Chris Brown often laments about that real need but spends money on the marina. 

   

Commissioner Sangster gave the tired argument that people, please do not ask how many, just people, had first docked at the marina and subsequently settled here buying houses or second homes. He even offered an anecdotal story, admittedly unsubstantiated, that someone might have invested up $10 million dollars in the area after docking at the Cheboygan County Marina. What a magical place. Rich Sangster is dipping from the same well drawn dry by visionaries like Tom O’Hare and other current and former Cheboygan Economic Development Group (CEDG) members. Those clever people have espoused for years that tourism and ideally, taxpayer subsidized tourism advertising, encourages and entices people to settle here, start new businesses, and create jobs. That sounds clever. How is it working for us? Should the millions of tourists who visit Mackinaw City each year create a handful of visitors smitten with the Straits to take root and add to those 800 permanent Mackinaw residents?  

Most people never pay attention to their local government until it directly impacts them. The hurt might be a vehicle destroying pothole or a tax bill that slams their pocketbook. If they receive any redress for their grievance, like an Ostrich they then stick their head back in the sand. All too often, if their grievance is unresolved, they go back home and still stick their head in the sand. How’s that working for you Cheboygan County? 

Cheboygan County's Only Public Park Is A Yacht Harbor

County governments in Michigan provide many essential services mandated by the state that are part of our expectation of the role of government. I would hope most would agree that the Sherriff’s Department, County Jail, and the District and Circuit Courts are jobs we probably do not want to turn over to privately held run for profit enterprises. The County Equalization Department, County Treasurer, and Clerk’s Office have a multitude of tasks including but not limited to maintaining fair property tax valuations, collecting and disbursing taxes, and recording innumerable legal and property records. The private sector could not provide many of these services as efficiently, hence, the use of governments’ ability to tax and provide for the public good. I am sure the majority of visitors to the County Building who empty their pockets and successfully traverse the security doors to do business with these and other unnamed departments find the vast majority of Cheboygan County employees take pride in serving their fellow County residents. Most of the hourly or salaried employees are our neighbors, friends, or even relatives and they know in Cheboygan County our boats all rise or fall on the same tide.

On the subject of boats and the approach of the boating season, have you gotten your yacht out of storage? The Cheboygan County Commissioners seem to think the true measure of a man is the length of his boat and they plan to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to maintain the promise: “the Cheboygan County Marina will continue to provide state-of-the-art facilities, world-class service and family-friendly services to the boating public.”

Many Cheboygan County taxpayers can't afford a row boat

The Cheboygan County Marina? Do our County Commissioners really think a marina for yachts is an essential government service? Well, maybe it is. Let’s be fiscally smart and run the numbers. How many Cheboygan County taxpayers docked seasonally at this facility last year? Records supplied by County Administrator Jeff Lawson showed out of 45 seasonal slips rented last summer, 7 boats had owners in Cheboygan County. With about 25,000 county residents or 10,000 households in Cheboygan County, only seven parties used this County recreational facility. That is less than three local users per ten thousand residents. Does that sound like an essential service?

Wait; there are always the immeasurable tourism benefits according to Mr Lawson. Here are the numbers I see. An iconic northern Michigan family owned marina sits on the opposite side of the Cheboygan River providing sales and service jobs with a real payroll. That for profit marina also paid more than $53,000 in property taxes last year. The Duncan Bay Boat Club, competing for the same boaters and dollars, offers over 260 slips with both condominium ownership and transient or seasonal slips. Mr Lawson’s taxpayer subsidized slip rental rate undercuts a competitor who pays more than $90,000 in property taxes every year. The taxpayer owned Cheboygan County Marina we all subsidize paid zero property taxes.

Lawson’s yacht basin now requires $800,000 in capital infusion. The Cheboygan taxpayers, usually paying the highest gasoline prices in the state offers any yacht cruising by a bargain on refueling. Lawson’s business model almost breaks even every year by paying no property taxes, and never setting aside any money for needed repairs. A study done more than 8 years ago, paid for by us, identified $3.5 million dollars in needed and future capital costs. Now Lawson wants $400,000 in Cheboygan taxpayer money plus another $400,000 DNR grant to replace the fuel tanks. The County ignored or forgot that report and nothing ever fixes itself. That $800,000 will be the first of several million dollars paid by county taxpayers over the next decade. 

...and The Cheboygan County Taxpayers

My modest boats have always proven the adage that a boat is a hole in the water that you pour money into.  Captain Jeff Lawson wants to play Harbor Master with your money and pour tax dollars into the Cheboygan County Marina’s bottomless hole. Net jobs he created last year-3 seasonal. A $600,000 water line to Meijer would bring 250-300 year round full and part-time jobs. Cheboygan County says “not our job”. 

The Cheboygan County Commissioners all need to hear that paying for the Cheboygan County Marina is not our job. Their names, districts, and telephone numbers are to the right. 

Cheboygan Zoning Laws Created Behind Closed Doors

Once upon a time, back on October 21 of 2015, the Cheboygan County Planning Commission started a public discussion to amend Article 19, Planned Unit Development (PUD). PUDs have the potential to be a significant departure from property developed under traditional Euclidean Zoning. Euclidean Zoning translates to Cheboygan County Planning telling you “you can’t build that, sell that, rent that, or do that here”. A PUD can be an antithesis to the “No, you can’t” and permit flexibility in the regulation of land development; encourage innovation in land use and variety in design, layout, and type of structures constructed.  There is no specific requirement that a PUD be limited to a single residential, commercial, or industrial land use. I have attended many Cheboygan County Planning Meetings. There have been hushed references to a previous failed PUD in Cheboygan County and a clear reluctance to try anything again that may have failed once. In Cheboygan County, it seems easier to just say no and not risk another failure.

Back to 2015 when Community Planner Scott McNeil stated that reviewing the PUD ordinance was a Master Plan goal for 2015. A PUD would permit a mixture of uses that allowed across the various zoning districts. The amendment would provide for a pre-application conference that would be general discussion only with no decision made on the application. Mr. McNeil stated this amendment also provides criteria and procedure for preliminary plan approval and final plan approval by the Planning Commission and Cheboygan County Board of Commissioners. Mr. McNeil explained that the amendment provides for expiration and renewal of preliminary plan approvals and amendments of an approved final plan.

I can relate all of this to you because I was there. Don’t believe me? Bob Lyon, Tony Matelski, Jim O’Donnell, and John Moore attended and heard the same words. Planning & Zoning Clerk Debbie Tomlinson later transcribed the meeting and noted who was there. At the next Planning Commission meeting, the Board approved this as the official record of a public meeting. I refreshed my memory from those official minutes. That is the way local government bodies are supposed to conduct business. It is not efficient, but the public has a ringside seat and ability to comment. Every member of the public who is interested in the process used to create or amend the zoning laws that affect our land use can participate.

That was in 2015 and things have changed. The expression that observing lawmakers is like watching sausage being made is really not apropos because ground meat does not tell us what to do. The six Cheboygan County Board of Commissioners in attendance on Tuesday, Chris Brown, Rich Sangster, Cal Gouine, Michael Neuman, John Wallace, and Robert Bollinger, none representing the best interest of the public on this issue, lawyered up and took their sausage making behind closed doors into a “closed session”. It is a moot point whether legal opinions provided by the County’s legal counsel outside of filed or pending litigation truly enjoy attorney-client privilege. I have little patience arguing with a professional who succeeds by cloaking the truth. A lawyer by definition is a one sided argument and the opposite of open government.

Here is the truth. Those Cheboygan County Commissioners are attempting with a lawyer, Administrator Jeff Lawson, and until proven otherwise the involvement of Development Director Steve Schnell to work behind closed doors to usurp the power of an appointed Planning Commission that makes zoning amendments in public view. There was a covert attempt earlier in the year to remove two independent thinkers from the Planning Commission to create a Planning Commission more compliant to Community Development Department. Commissioner Matelski stopped that. This most recent covert operation is another attempt that will not bode well for the County.

PUDs are one of the best tools available to accommodate a growth opportunity when it makes an appearance. These past headlines are proof of that; “The Emmet County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday voted 6-1 to approve Meijer's request for a preliminary PUD,  The Emmet County Board of Commissioners on Thursday approved an amendment to the county's Planned Unit Development agreement with R.G. Properties to allow a third sit-down restaurant such as Bob Evans to locate next to Applebee's on U.S. 131 just south of Petoskey”.

The Cheboygan County Community Development Department, an oxymoron, wants to remove “County Board of Commissioners” from the PUD process and from the headlines. We will continue to read, “Griswold Mountain Properties has chosen to withdraw their conditional rezoning application” and of the ongoing litigation with Heritage Cove. The Cheboygan Meijer project remains high and dry with a signage variance denied and zoning approvals lapsed. 

Cheboygan Commissioners Schedule SECRET Meeting

Everyone who is interested in the future growth or even the survival of Cheboygan County must attend the April 11, 2017 Cheboygan County Board of Commissioners Finance/Business Meeting. 

Who do the Cheboygan County Board of Commissioners represent? 

It will not be Cheboygan County residents if these three individuals, County Administrator Jeff Lawson, Community Development Director Steve Schnell, and Legal Counsel Bryan Graham; none of who reside in Cheboygan County;  have their way. 

Item 15 on the agenda is a "closed session", behind closed doors private meeting, not open to the people who will be governed by the "Language-Draft Proposal" Planned Unit Development Zoning Ordinance (PUD). The staff and legal counsel ignore our rights and think proposed laws governing our land use should be discussed, influenced, and decided upon in closed doors sessions. 

In simple terms, a PUD could facilitate a major mixed retail development (Meijer), a unique innovative healthcare development (Heritage Cove), or a huge mixed residential/retail/ accommodation development (Bay Harbor). It would empower Cheboygan County to think beyond the narrow confines of failed Ordinance #200 and its 139 amendments. 

Michigan Law offers two paths for a PUD. This link to an MSUE article explains the process. 

http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/planned_unit_development_provides_flexibility_in_local_zoning

The first process allows the elected officials, our County Commissioners, to have final oversight and approval of a PUD. That does not mean they will rewrite or ignore the laws. It simply means they should, as our elected representatives, have the opportunity to represent their constituents when major or controversial developments are proposed.

The second, allegedly simple and more streamlined process, means the Community Development staff and Planning Commission base an administrative decision solely on standards spelled out in detail in the zoning ordinance. That means decisions based on the failed standards in Ordinance #200. 

The Heritage Cove application was approved at the administrative and Planning Commission level and is still embroiled in lawsuits after more than two years. It was a victim of an archaic use of definitions and administrative delays caused by staff attempting to work with failed zoning standards. The Meijer project should have been a PUD but the Community Development Department was again unprepared. The chosen Meijer site required rezoning contrary to the year old Master Plan and approval by the County Commissioners. It is still delayed by infrastructure needs unforeseen and ignored by the Community Development Department. 

Please attend this meeting on April 11th and protest the planned "closed session" where our property rights will be decided. I encourage each of you to stand at the podium and remind the Commissioners that we do not live in a totalitarian society ruled upon by a board making decisions in secrecy. 

Cheboygan County Board of Commissioners

MISSION STATEMENT

Cheboygan County officials and staff will strive to provide public services in an

open and courteous manner and will responsibly manage county resources.

Finance/Business Meeting

April 11, 2017

9:30 a.m.

Agenda

15. CLOSED SESSION – Pursuant to MCL 15.268(h) Planned Unit Development Zoning Ordinance

Language - Draft Proposal

Mullet Township Supervisor/Maintenance Man Speaks Out

On January 1, 2017, the State of Michigan raised the minimum wage by 40 cents an hour to $8.90. That was the second in a series of long overdue increases in the minimum wage. There has been a lot of local news about the need for more area jobs that pay that Holy Grail of $15 an hour. If the economic forecasters are correct, most other wage earners might see a 3% increase in pay this year. Suck up your courage; go in this morning and ask the boss for your raise.

If you are looking for another part-time job, with excellent pay and benefits, follow the lead of our local township officials and get elected to office. On March 7, 2017, the following Mullett Township Board members voted themselves a pay raise. Trustee John Brown and Trustee Dennis Dombroski voted to increase their salary from $2,500 to $4,000 per year. That is a 60% salary increase in one year on top of a previous year increase of more than 20%. Like them, you will need to attend most monthly meetings, but not all, and your total butt in the chair time might add up to 25 or 30 hours for an entire year. Worst case, $4,000 for 30 hours is $133 an hour for your time. Nice work if you can get it.

The Mullett Treasurer Kathy Flory and Clerk Rachel Osborn also voted their own raises. Unlike the Trustees, both of those positions actually involve part-time work; collecting taxes and keeping records. Like your part-time job they have some statutory duties. But, unlike you, they can and do set their own hours and schedules. They voted themselves an 18% raise in salary from $15,200 to $18,000 for the year. What's that you say? That is $18,000 for a part-time set your own hours job with additional sweeteners like taxpayer funded jaunts to meetings and getaways.

As you work this year at one or more jobs trying to earn $18,000 a year, remember those names. They put their interests ahead of the taxpayers to enrich themselves. They don't care. 

MULLETT TOWNSHIP SUPERVISOR/MAINTENANCE PERSON

Newly elected Mullett Township Supervisor Hobart Kirsch loudly stated he doesn't care and will never listen to any question or comment of mine. 

Mullett taxpayers pay both his salaries. He doesn't care. He loudly and publicly said he won't listen. Supervisor Kirsch should have listened and kept his mouth shut.